27: How Meaghan Changed Her Life from Rock Bottom to Six Figures

Behind Their Success: Ep 27

Meaghan Long: [00:00:00] My son said, mama, for the first time, and I was at a meeting and I just lost it.

Meaghan Long: I'm like, I cannot. It's. I cannot live like this anymore. Like I got into business to be free. Like I'm making stupid money, like $12,000 a month. So what if I can do this better?

 Welcome to Behind Their Success. This podcast is for people who are feeling stuck on their entrepreneur journey or in their careers. It's for people who want to scale and grow their businesses, learn about the power of mindset, or they just know there's more out there and they want to start making changes.

I'm Paden Squires, the host of the podcast. I was never cut out to be an employee. And when I was an employee, I was bored out of my mind. So I made a plan. I studied and passed the CPA exam in eight months while working all with the end goal in mind of quitting my job and starting my own business. I did that in 2014 and it has been an amazing wild ride since.

So now let's hear from other entrepreneurs and what mindsets and probably more important, what actions they have taken that have created and led to their [00:01:00] success.

Paden Squires: Welcome everybody back to Behind Their Success Podcast. I am Paden Squires, the host, and today we have Meaghan Long. She is an ex bartender with a 10th grade education who has struggled with addiction and anorexia for 15 years. She even considered taking her life at one point, but the COVID 19 pandemic was the beginning of her sober journey.

Paden Squires: Through that journey, she had a son that was born actually one day before she hit her one year anniversary of sobriety. Since then, she has built two multi six figure businesses in a two year time span. Her methodology is centered in creating a business that fits your life and allows you to instill freedom at every moment in line with your values.

Paden Squires: So tell us, um, you got, uh, you know, in the intro there, you got a really cool story, a really cool background. I would love to hear more about it. I mean, if we're going back to the beginning, I was never someone that really fit in. I didn't like school, my [00:02:00] parents line didn't get along and I liked extremes.

Meaghan Long: And I dealt with mental health at a very young age, like seven or eight years old, I was in therapy and medications and all that stuff. And at one point I just kind of hit the reject button. I'm like, I don't belong here in this family. I don't belong here at school. And I had been working in the restaurant industry for a couple of years and that, 15 years old in a breakfast spot making a hundred dollars a day.

Meaghan Long: that felt like a goldmine. I felt like I won the lottery and I was fortunate to work around other women that had similar stories and they took me in. So like women in their thirties that taught me how to act older than you are so I could go rent an apartment and, you know, Pay my bills and certain things.

Meaghan Long: So I, I started living a lifestyle, someone a lot older than me, which also brought me into the bar industry. So drinking was introduced alongside the eating disorder and depression and anxiety and drinking was really my escape, my family, that was a lot of pain in my life and I leaned heavily on relationships [00:03:00] at work to Keep me in survival mode, and I started to have more problems with my eating disorder, and I was inpatient 11 times across a 15 year time span. Heart failure, liver failure, kidney failure, and Never once in those moments when a doctor would be saying to me, like, you're going to die if you keep doing this, did I actually believe it to be truthful?

Meaghan Long: I thought they were just trying to scare me and like, it's not so serious. And it wasn't really until I think like 2017, I talked about that a lot on social media. I like writing off my whole life. I lost my career as a restaurant manager. I'd been there for about four years. My apartment, my jeep, my dog, like everything just went sideways and it was the first time that I was kind of like, you know, maybe this is a problem and like I, I should actually take it seriously and during the time of my addiction, people started falling away.

Meaghan Long: So I was really alone at that moment and if it hadn't been for a hospital, a psych ward, [00:04:00] I would have been homeless and I wouldn't have stopped drinking. I was able to recover at that point from my anorexia in that hospital. And I was living on a sailboat at the time and I felt very at peace being in water. And I started learning more about recovery communities.

Meaghan Long: And My dad has been sober for like 20 years or something like that. My mom is in a home for alcohol induced dementia, so it's like it's in our family. And I started to seek freedom from myself. And 20, 2019 is when I started in a recovery community and I started thinking about things like, Maybe I can go back to school.

Meaghan Long: Like maybe I'm not this black sheep and it wasn't until 2020 that I really started to take it seriously. But the suicidal ideation started coming up for me as well. So I managed to get through 2020 and that's the year that I think changed a lot of people's lives. But I fell in love with a man on the internet who is currently my husband and we had [00:05:00] our son Hunter and being pregnant and being freshly sober.

Meaghan Long: I was three or four months sober. It's something that really. Did change the course of my life. And, he's been the driving force in a lot of what I do in staying sober and helping other moms find their way in business. And I opened my first business in May, 2022 as a virtual assistant. Scale that business very quickly.

Meaghan Long: I built a team, hired coaches. They've been a huge part of my journey. And then I got into coaching myself, which did not go well when I first started, by the way, I was someone that would be considered like a failed coach. I had like four clients over a six month timeframe. And it wasn't until January, 2023 that I actually started creating methodology.

Meaghan Long: People wanted meaning like I was being a human and not some like a salesperson and talking about all the time. So that's when things really started to change for me. And that business brought in a quarter of a million dollars in its first year. 

Paden Squires: That's amazing. That's an amazing story. like I kind of [00:06:00] wrote down a note while you were talking there that to me it seemed like maybe the turning point is, you say you're isolated, but one of the main turning points is, was getting in that community, right.

Paden Squires: Tell me a little bit more about that, that community and how it affected you. 

Meaghan Long: I was so resistant to it and I would go to meetings and I would sit in these rooms and I'd hear people talk about their stories of, like drinking or loss or catastrophe.

Meaghan Long: And I'm sitting in those rooms and I still couldn't say like, this is also me. I'm like, that's you. That sounds really bad. But if you sit in those rooms long enough, you're going to hear your story. And. Having strong women in my life in that community is being poignant for me because when they say things like, Hey, like I see you and I'd listen to speakers and they talk about leaving home early or not completing school or being in an abusive relationship.

Meaghan Long: And it's like, Oh, like I see a little bit of me in you. So I started connecting with women on a more of a one to one basis. Like, yes, I was in group meetings, but having them in my corner so I could [00:07:00] text a question, like, you know, I kind of want to drink and like, what am I even supposed to do at this moment?

Meaghan Long: It started with them really, it was leaning on people, but. supported me until I could love and support myself. 

Paden Squires: Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's really good stuff. so after through all that journey and all dealing with a lot of the stuff in your background, you started two businesses, right?

Paden Squires: A virtual assistant business and then, a coaching business, tell us a little bit more about those two. 

Meaghan Long: I kind of was pushed off what felt like a ledge into the virtual assistant world. I had decided to cut off my maternity leave. A bartender's salary for maternity leave in Canada was like 600 a month, which doesn't do much of anything.

Meaghan Long: And I, I kept having this thought come up about transferable skills. The recovery community talks about it. My recovery mentor talked about it. And then I started seeing it on social media. And it's like that red car theory. Once you see something or hear it, you just can't ignore it. And there was a woman in the States that was talking about a virtual system business and she could stay home with their kids.

Meaghan Long: And that was something that I had to do just [00:08:00] because there's no daycare here. And I don't have an education. So even if I wanted to be an admin for a company virtually, it was like, university degree and like four years experience. I'm like, I just want something that I can do at home.

Meaghan Long: That's kind of fun. And I cut off my maternity leave to pursue this with a zero piece of knowledge, zero background. The one thing that I know that I am good at is. Being good to other people. So this business for me started the understanding and connection that being a good human for other good humans is really.

Meaghan Long: What a service based business is. So I leaned into that and I've told my story very honestly from day one. I'm a very open person when it comes to conversations about mental health and motherhood and addiction. And it served like a really great purpose for me in deepening connections.

Meaghan Long: So, I mean, by my second month, I was making 5, 000 a month and like, I was busy. My son would have been like six or seven months old and it felt like nothing I've ever experienced. I've never been in [00:09:00] a job where I felt that good about what I was doing and it just kept growing. Referrals started coming in and the first coach that I worked with, the goal was to build a team.

Meaghan Long: I had already hired someone, not really understanding the process. logistics of it. But because of my story, she said, not a lot of people get to 5, 000 a month without a coach. And I think that you have a story to share with your mental health and like, you know, you're kind of a brand rising. And I was really resistant to it, cause I didn't have a good connotation with coaches.

Meaghan Long: I thought that they were very pushy and they just wanted to sell you shit. Yeah. And that's just not who I am. I'm like, yeah, I want to help people, but what am I supposed to do? Get up and say like one spot left from my coaching program, which I did by the way. And it didn't go very well. Yeah.so I launched my first program to be nice to freedom.

Meaghan Long: I had beta clients right out of the gate, but I was still an online business manager. I still had the virtual assistant team. So we're talking like 60, 70 hours of workweek and that's crazy. My husband was not happy with me, rightfully so. And like, there was a moment that I can remember. My office at the time was in the [00:10:00] basement and my son said, mama, for the first time, and I was at a meeting and I just lost it.

Meaghan Long: I'm like, I cannot. It's. I cannot live like this anymore. Like I got into business to be free. Like I'm making stupid money, like 12, 000 a month. So what if I can do this better? So January was my plan to quit my online business stuff as like someone that's in the business and I wanted to start coaching, but nobody wanted to work with me hundreds of sales calls over December, nothing.

Meaghan Long: And I realized like, you don't actually know everything, Megan. Like, yes, you're very stubborn, but you can't like it, I work this. So I hired another coach who really helped shape my journey . You actually just really need to be yourself and like to talk to people on a human level and give value, which is very different from how my previous business coach I'd suggested to do things.

Meaghan Long: And within four or five days I had filled out my one to one coaching and that would have been. February of last year, and it just took off and December of last year, [00:11:00] I had decided that I didn't want to coach people that are just starting their business anymore. I wanted to help people scale. I was.

Meaghan Long: hitting 20, 25, 27, 000 months. And I wanted to help coaches like me that have this experience. They have this beautiful gift to share with the world. They really want to help other people. They have a story to tell, but they don't know how to talk about it in a way that's like about other people and not about themselves.

Meaghan Long: So I launched a second program, scaling with heart, which is my core offer now. And. I closed my freelance freedom. My first coaching program in April of this year. And then I opened membership. 

Paden Squires: can, you know, you talk about connecting with people on a different, you know, a deeper level or a human level.

Paden Squires: and that vulnerability is what that connection is, right. Being vulnerable with people that really allows that connection to grow. and also having the story of having the. the trials and all the junk that you went through in your life actually qualifies you even more so to help people that came from that same type of background.

Paden Squires: I [00:12:00] never hear Ed Milet talk. He talks about, you're most qualified to help the person you used to be, right? Pretty interesting stuff. Yeah. Megan, you've done a lot of cool stuff. Tell us what you think is your best skill, that helps you do what you do? 

Meaghan Long: It's honestly, it's still definitely my people skills.

Meaghan Long: Like I can teach marketing and sales and content and all this stuff all day long. I can do that. I can talk about niches and all the things, but I don't believe that's what makes a successful business today. I really believe it's about how you share your story. To support other people on their journey.

Meaghan Long: And like what you just said, our clients are a reflection of ourselves. So like, if you are in a place where you want to give and share and support and help them grow, it's a way different dynamic than like getting the sale. And that probably for me, I mean, bar none, I still have. Coaching clients from when I first opened my program like one to one clients that I sign up for every single thing that I've posted About since any program has any membership, and I truly believe it's not just [00:13:00] because of what's in the content.

Meaghan Long: I don't believe that's it. It's because they want to still work together in different dynamics. And they, when you find your person, you find your person. So I think how I share and how much value I give, I'm like an all in person. So when someone makes a decision to work with me, we're in this together.

Meaghan Long: It's not this, like, here's the online content or like try this strategy. It's Hey, like I hear that you're stuck. That's fine. coaching call or send me some voice notes and let's walk through this together. Cause at this stage I've been in multiple niches and multiple businesses at different growth parts.

Meaghan Long: So I'm. Aware of what that feels like for themselves, for their families, their mindset and how can we work through this together? Because I think that a lot of people get stuck and I used to be this way. I can just work at it or I can just try harder. Or maybe it's just another strategy.

Meaghan Long: A hundred percent of the time, it's not another strategy. It's almost always how we think. Right. So. 

Paden Squires: I would say I'd had similar experiences. Similar path on [00:14:00] that, that kind of journey is realizing that, really, all the problems are you, right? You're literally all the problems and all the solutions at the same time, right?

Paden Squires: as the leader of the owner of the business or what have you, it's if there's a problem, There's nowhere to look, but to you, you're the one that's got to solve it. and honestly, you're probably the one that created it,from your lack of skills or whatever.

Paden Squires: So what would you say is, the best decision you've made on this journey? 

Meaghan Long: not getting up when shit gets hard, a hundred percent. I watch a lot of people give up before it gets good. And I think long term focus is something that we need in business, but it's also hard when there's bills or responsibilities or whatever the case may be.

Meaghan Long: hiring mentors. I've worked with over five mentors over the last two years, all for different reasons and different assets. And I'm really grateful that I chose to keep reinvesting because I know that Collapsed time around what I want to do. So could I get [00:15:00] there a hundred percent? Is it going to take me longer, more frustration, time, energy, all the things for sure.

Meaghan Long: and having a team, I've had a team really in my corner since my second or third month in business, and it's one of the best decisions that I've made because I get to focus on the core of my business, which is my coaching clients. And that's my sales and my marketing. I don't have to think about contracts, payments, emails, anything in the background.

Meaghan Long: And it's something that has really allowed me to also have more time freedom. So I think those three things are what I would suggest to someone, even if you're new, even if you're new and you're like, I can do this on my own. You can, you absolutely can. But if you want to be making money and signing clients, please go do that.

Paden Squires: Yeah. That's a great point. It's like, yes, you absolutely can do all this stuff, but. And it doesn't have to be that hard, but I like, I like what you say there, it's you were willing to push through, You're willing to push through the hard stuff. And that is what kills most businesses before they even get off the ground if people come into some business.

Paden Squires:  they have. This irrational [00:16:00] optimism about how easy and great or whatever it's going to be. And they don't necessarily see the walls and all the stuff that's in the way that they actually got to knock down or go through or whatever. and they usually quit as soon as they run into that wall and think, I can't do it, right. And then I love that you talk about hiring mentors, right? You talk about collapsing time. and that's something I wish I would have done even sooner in my business. No, I, I really got into, I guess I haven't really hired a lot of direct coaches other than I read a lot, right? I read a lot of books.

Paden Squires: Listen to a lot of podcasts and that has been a lot of my, I would say mentorship type stuff, but yeah, it was like you can read one book and man, you just saved three years off your journey because of an idea that was in there. Right? That's cool. What's one big mistake you've made on your journey here?

Paden Squires: Big 

Meaghan Long: mistake.I don't know if I have just one, there's a lot. 

Paden Squires: yeah, we all got tons of them, right? But one, one that you feel like, you've learned from, have made a, made a, certainly an impact on the path you took. 

Meaghan Long: I think one that comes up. [00:17:00] A lot for me, and I speak about this a lot in my coaching communities as well, as I really tried to quiet my voice and like to blend in with the crowd when I first started coaching.

Meaghan Long: I just tried to share what I thought people needed when they really wanted to know the human. So it's being unapologetic about, Your opinions, your thoughts, and I don't care if it causes controversy. I don't care if someone gets upset and posts a mean thing. It doesn't affect me today, but I do wish that I had done that a lot sooner.

Meaghan Long: Cause at the beginning of my journey, I was trying to act like the coach that I was working with. And it was very like bro marketing in your face. salesy stuff, which is just not me. So like my nervous system was like, what are you doing? Like, this is not, this is not you. Um, so that's probably one that I, I would encourage anyone that's listening to really take a peek at their marketing.

Meaghan Long: And if it doesn't sound like you, if you wouldn't buy that from yourself, cut it out. 

Paden Squires: yeah, the, a huge reason why that's not gonna work is you're not gonna, you can't sell anything you really don't believe in or really not in [00:18:00] any level. Right. and then also too, it's like you say, you're wanting to blend in or be like everybody else.

Paden Squires: And if you're that, like, you're not interesting, right? Like no one, no one wants to, oh man, I want to hire this coach that is 

Meaghan Long: not 

Paden Squires: interesting. Yeah. So the only way you can do that right is be yourself and stand out and all those different things. So going back, what is a piece of advice you'd give your younger self?

Paden Squires: I know you struggle with a lot of different things and went through, I, I can't imagine a lot of different situations. What's a piece of advice you give your younger self? 

Meaghan Long: The weight of other people's opinions is heavy and I like not to take that on. I'm actually like a really sensitive human. And it was probably also a reason why I drank so much. Like someone would say something and I would stay with me for like months and just someone else's opinion.the self trust part of my journey has been massive and I make big, brave moves all the time and people look at me and they're like, how do you do that?

Meaghan Long: I'm like, I trust myself today. It might not work out. It might not be my [00:19:00] best move ever, but. I learn, I don't believe that there's like a loss in anything. It's all experience on all this data that we get to collect in our lives. We get to compile that and then make better decisions. So I think a lot of it is about perspective.

Meaghan Long: And if I could tell my younger self anything, it's like. Don't care what other people think about 

Paden Squires: Well, that's, I just through this conversation, I can tell that's really hard for you. it's really hard for me as well, because,your outgoingness, your socialness, all that is great and it's great skill, but that also means you really care about what other people think, right?

Paden Squires: You're really attuned to other people and how they're feeling. and yeah, that can be a hindrance, right? I don't know if you've ever taken it like a culture index is a personality test that I use a lot in my business and trying to size you up to see what portfolio or profile you are.

Paden Squires: And I can tell you have a really high B the measurement and their B is sociability, which is outgoing and connection and all those good stuff. but yeah, the flip side of that, Is You're sensitive to other people. [00:20:00] 

Meaghan Long: Yeah. 

Meaghan Long: I think as humans, and again, like I'm sensitive, I'm a huge empath. Like I'll look at something and I'll read it and I'm like, Oh, maybe I really should have thought about this for, I'm like, wait a second. It's not for that person. My business and what I do and what I stand for is not for that individual that wants to be a keyboard warrior on the internet.

Meaghan Long: That is not my people. I do it for the people that are excited and overjoyed to have someone to share as well as you that I do because it's a ripple effect. They end up doing the same thing. We have. clients right now talking about their cancer journey and their abuse survivor journey. And it just, those moments always will outweigh those little pieces where people are like, Oh, like why would you even post your opinion?

Meaghan Long: I'm like, well, works for some doesn't work for others. I guess.

Paden Squires: yeah, it's tough. It's something I've certainly struggled with a lot over the years and I've gotten a lot better at it. But what you're doing is you've done the healing, you've done the work too. Not let that affect you as much, or at least put it in the right perspective, right?

Paden Squires: Of, at least my opinion on the stuff is like 200 years from now, [00:21:00] no one's going to know likely any of us even exist. Everybody we know is, everybody we know, everybody's going to be dead. And that being a fact and being true, like, why do you care? Like, why do you care what other people think?

Paden Squires: But it is so ingrained in us as humans and being able to connect with people. It's just a big part of. our survival. 

Meaghan Long: I always play the tape forward. Like, is this really going to matter? You know, tomorrow, even nevermind in six months. And if it doesn't, this is a drop in the bucket, get used to it.

Paden Squires: yeah. And the further and further you zoom out, it matters less and less. so it's often just a matter of changing your perspective. So Megan, Tell people how they can connect with you. What's the best way they can get a hold of you or interact with you? I know you got your coaching programs.

Paden Squires: tell us the best way people can interact with 

Meaghan Long: you. I answer all of my messages, my emails myself. So whether you connect with me on Instagram or you wind up in our Facebook group, it is all me. Same with emails. And we provide lots of free value there in the Facebook group, free training and masterclasses and a ton of good stuff.

Meaghan Long: [00:22:00] And as far as coaching goes, we have scaling with heart, which is for new and early stage coaches that are looking to grow and scale their business with all heart centered strategy. and we also have an ascension club, which is a new membership that I just opened up and it's. Very founded in mindset work, but we have challenges every month and it flip flops between mindset and business.

Meaghan Long: We're about to launch the freedom formula, which is how to have four and five figure launches with ease. We did $57,000 launches across our last three launches. So I wanted to capture this and share this with the world. So we're super stoked about breaking the internet in all of June, but Instagram would probably be The quickest way to get ahold of me.

Meaghan Long: That's where I hang out the most myself. 

Paden Squires: Very cool. Very cool. I'm excited to hear and see the work you're doing. I love that kind of stuff scaling  businesses and helping people are so stuck in a lot of those different areas, whether lack of confidence or, it's a combination of lack of confidence, lack of skill set.

Paden Squires: but all of that they can get with the right mentor or the right coach, to develop themselves to be able to do. Whatever they want, pretty much. [00:23:00] Yeah. Meaghan, I appreciate you coming on today. it's been a great conversation and listeners. We will check you out next time.